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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Father and Sun

“My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.”--Aldous Huxley

Today June 5th, marks the once in a lifetime astronomical event when Venus transits in front of the Sun, and appears as a small, insignificant speck against our bold and life giving Sun.

Today also happens to be my dad’s birthday. If he were alive today, that lovable bastard would be turning 91.

But of course he is no longer with us; he passed on nearly 14 years ago, which considering all he accomplished during his 78 years, was a pretty good run.

He helped to produce nine kids, two books of poetry, and had one wife to whom he was married fifty-two years, when he died.

Pretty good for a working class Irish-Catholic guy with nothing other than many mouths to feed, a high school education, a work ethic beyond reproach, a love for his wife and his kids, and most importantly, a love for the English language.

But let me share a secret with ya…My dad was one grumpy bastard for much of his life.

Sometimes he would be so grumpy that he would let loose his skilled use of the English language upon us children, and say something like…

“God Damn It!!”

Ha…As devoutly Catholic as my dad was, instead of shrinking and cowering to the distant teachings of the Pope, my dad felt that he HAD every right to invoke God’s name, and did so on numerous occasions.

My dad was also a nature lover, and if he were alive today, he would be watching Venus in transit across the sun today, as I will be.

In a rare occurrence, Venus will transit the Sun and appear as a speck across our larger than life celestial star today, and…well it kinda says something to me.

When I see Venus as a speck against the great and golden illuminating prowess of the Sun, I am going to see myself as that speck in the greatness that was my dad.

I’ll never be as successful as my dad. I’ll never be as nice as my dad…I’ll never have the once in a lifetime love as my dad, but…
I’ll always have his love of words, his sense of humor, and his love for people.

And for me?

That’s enough, however…

He could have also given me his good hair, good gums, and good eyesight as well.

Great tribute! The sky always reminds me of my grandpa who taught me most of what I know about the northwoods. We used to spend so many nights in his backyard (in the middle of nowhere) with a telescope looking at stars. I'm checking out the transit today in honor of him. Very cool!

That was wonderful. I'm glad you had such a loving father and someone genuinely great to look up to. I still remember one of your posts about your dad from years ago, when you talked about his poetry.

I didn't know about the Venus transition until I was dropping books off at the library with my kids today, and a Science teacher was so excited about it, he had me look through his special lens. It was amazing!!! Venus looked like a beauty mark on the Sun's left temple. So small, but distinctive.

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